Rooms in the inner court
42
📚Then he brought me out into the outer courtyard, the way facing north; and he brought me into the room that was opposite the separated area, and which was in front of the building facing north. 2 📚Facing the length, which was a hundred cubits, and the width which was fifty cubits, was the north door. 3 📚Opposite the inner court of twenty cubits, and opposite the pavement of the outer court, was gallery facing gallery in three stories. 4 📚And in front of the rooms on the inner side was a walkway ten cubits wide, one cubit away; and their doors faced north. 5 📚Now the upper rooms were shorter, for the galleries took more space from them than the lower and middle ones of the building. 6 📚For they were in three stories, and did not have pillars like the pillars of the courts, therefore the building was narrower at the top than at the lower and middle levels from the ground up. 7 📚And the length of the outside wall that was opposite the rooms facing the outer courtyard at the front of the rooms was fifty cubits. 8 📚For the length of the rooms that were in the outer courtyard was fifty cubits, but, see, that facing the temple was a hundred cubits. 9 📚And the eastern entrance was at these rooms, as one goes into them from the outer court. 10 📚There were rooms in the thickness of the wall of the courtyard facing east, opposite the separated area, and opposite the building, 11 📚with a walkway in front of them. In appearance they were like the rooms which faced north, as long as those, and as wide as those; and all their exits were like their designs, and like their doors. 12 And corresponding to the doors of the rooms facing south was a door at the head of the walkway, the walkway directly in front of the wall to the east, as one goes into them.
13 📚Then he said to me, “The north rooms and the south rooms, which are in front of the separated area, are holy rooms, where the priests who approach the LORD will eat the most holy things. There they will put the most holy things, and the grain offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; for the place is holy. 14 📚When the priests enter it, they will not go out of the holy place into the outer courtyard, but put there the garments in which they minister, for they are holy. And they will put on other garments, and approach the places which are for the people”.
42:13-14 Notice again the emphasis on a special priesthood distinguished from the rest of the people. They have special rooms, special food, special clothing. It is not easy to see how this could be spiritually fulfilled either in the Church of this New Testament age, or in the eternal ages when God will dwell in the midst of believers.⚜
15 📚Now when he had finished measuring the inner temple, he brought me out to the gate which faced toward the east, and measured it all around. 16 📚He measured the east side with the measuring rod, five hundred rods, all around with the measuring rod. 17 He measured all around the north side with the measuring rod, five hundred rods. 18 He measured the south side with the measuring rod, five hundred rods. 19 He came around to the west side, and measured five hundred rods with the measuring rod. 20 📚He measured it on the four sides. It had a wall all around, five hundred rods long, and five hundred wide, to separate the holy from the common.